It's around 24,000x14,000 pixels, consisting of three layers — red, green and blue — giving the image both colour and depth — and shows in intricate, zoom-able, scannable detail how the night sky is put together.

Where the sky is clear, you can hardly see any darkness at all: those strange patterns of shadow are actually caused by dust obscuring the stars behind it — answering, at least partially, Olbers' Paradox (which was actually solved some time ago, but it's fun to pretend).

(Screenshot by Michelle Starr/CNET Australia)

And that's only a very small fraction of the stars in our galaxy.

Aside from that, it's rather beautiful to look at.

In fact, if you like, you can order a print from the ESO, available from a modest 60x34.3 centimetres, all the way up to a massive 3x1.7 metres.

You can find the image here. For the best effect, we recommend going full-screen. With a projector.